WHY MEN SHOULD EXERCISE DAILY
deal with it. And if Gladstone used to bite each bit of food thirty-two times; and so to thoroughly wet it in the mouth, before sending it on for the gastric juice to deal with; it will pay you to do the same. A well-known professor in one of the great medical schools in New York City said one day to his class: "Young gentlemen, your liver is a sponge. Squeeze it!" Well you do not squeeze it much in ordinary walking; and none at all in sitting still. But when your hands go high over your head; or you sway your body far over to either side; or backward; or forward; you do squeeze it; and greatly aid it in its usual work.
Mr. Huxley says that in ordinary respiration, only about twenty to thirty cubic inches of air pass in and out of the lungs, which he calls tidal air. But every time you slap the backs of your hands together high over your head; you start a hundred or more cubic inches of air hurrying in and out of your lungs; using and toughening your lung-fibre; and all the plumbing from nostril on down to air-cell; and making it harder for pneumonia or other disease to enter.
And after breakfast what? Then you must go to your work. But how do you go now? As short a walk as you can take, to the nearest car. Then a ride as close to your place of business as you can get; and $30; $50; $75; $100 a year for the ride. But why not walk? Of Gladstone, Garibaldi, Lowell, it is said that they never rode when they could walk. Be sure that you always have easy walking-shoes; low-heeled, and broad enough to let every toe go down flat. Try at first a short walk—of a mile—at a comfortable, but not brisk pace, say of three and a quarter miles an hour. If you are a strong, easy walker, increase the pace at the rate of half a mile an hour. Walk this mile each day the first week. If
69
